


Stupid

by DeckofDragons



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Artistic Scout, Background Spydad, Dyslexic Scout, He's not, M/M, Scout thinks he's dumb, Self-Worth Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 08:38:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17597951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Scout is worried that he's stupid. Sniper assures him that he's not.





	Stupid

Getting mail from home was equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking. The pictures were nice but… the accompanying letters were rough at times. Reading was difficult and therefore slow going, few things made Scout feel worse than being reminded of how stupid he was. But he needed to know what was up with his Mom and bothers so he always read them anyway. He did so in his room so no one would see him struggling with something so simple and thus know how dumb he was.

He was about halfway through his second letter – he’d read the one from his Mom first – when the bed dipped as someone sat next to him; Sniper. Scout had been so focused on reading he hadn’t heard Sniper’s standard soft knock before he came in. Normally Scout wouldn’t mind, Sniper slept in here more fairly often these days anyway so he was almost always welcome, but him coming in right now was… embarrassing. He already knew Scout was stupid so it wasn’t _that_ big of a deal, it’d be better if he wasn’t confronted with that fact though.

“Hey mate, what’s up?” Sniper asked.

“Nothing really just… reading mail stuff.” Scout folded the letter up to place on his bedside table before turning to face him.

“I uh… didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll leave if you like.” Sniper gestured with his thumb towards the door.

“No, it’s fine. It was starting to give me a headache anyway.” Scout shrugged it off, trying to pretend it was no big deal. Because it _shouldn’t_ be, Sniper already knew so it didn’t matter. But… Scout wished he _didn’t_ know even though he’d been the one to tell him in the first place. “I can finish it later.”

“You okay?” Ever since they’d started dating a few months ago now, Sniper had gotten better and better at picking up on when Scout was only acting like everything was fine. It was kind of nice sometimes, other times not so much. Which it was now was hard to say.

“Uh… I don’t know.” There was no point denying it though when he’d already been caught in the lie. And well… Sniper already knew. “I just… don’t like that I’m stupid you know? It’s not a big deal, I’ll get over it.”

Sniper frowned and sighed. “You’re not stupid, you…”

“But I…” Scout interrupted before being interrupted right back.

“No ‘but’s,” Sniper said firmly. “Book smart isn’t the only kind of smart, stop thinking it is.”

“If you say so.” Scout crossed his arms. This wasn’t an argument he could ever win, he didn’t even _want_ to win it. He wanted Sniper to be right but years of floundering in school and disappointing all his teachers, mom, and elder brothers said otherwise.

Sniper put an arm around him. Always down for a good cuddle, Scout let him and leaned into him, wrapping his arms around his middle, snuggling himself up close enough to be half sitting in his lap. He was dumb but Sniper still liked him despite that – for _some_ reason, Scout wasn’t going to question it though. It was more than he deserved but he didn’t care, as long as Sniper wanted him around, he’d _gladly_ stay.

“There are other kinds of smart,” Sniper said, not dropping it like Scout had hoped he would.

“Yeah, there’s math too and I’m not great at that either.” Scout would prefer to just cuddle and not talk about this anymore. Cuddling was nice, talking about his problems was not.

“You’re smart with people and art. You’re one of the best artists I know.”

“Dude, as far as I know, you only know two artists. The other one is Spy and he’s better than me, meaning I’m also the worst artist you know.”

“I uh… didn’t know Spy was an artist.”

“He paints. The paintings in his room are ones he did.” Scout had asked one day out of curiosity and he’d walked in – after picking the lock when his knock wasn’t answered – on Spy painting once. Turns out being an artist apparently ran in the family.

“I’ve never been in his room. Doesn’t matter though, your art’s good too, really good.” Scout was tempted to interrupt him but… he liked compliments. They were nice and Sniper meant them. “And you got battle smarts too, your good at your job.” That coming from Sniper actually meant a lot. “You’re street smart too. And did I say you’re good with people yet? Because you are. That’s one area I fail at pretty hard. You wouldn’t call me stupid for that, would you?”

“No, of course not.” Scout would sooner punch himself in the face than call Sniper stupid.

“See? Being bad at one or two things doesn’t make you dumb, it just means you’re not great at certain things. It doesn’t affect your worth in anyway, kay?”

“Okay.” Scout wasn’t sure he believed him but well… maybe one day he could? If someone as great as Sniper saw value in him and didn’t think his inability to read well affected that value then maybe it was true? _Maybe_. “Thanks.” He was tempted to add an ‘I love you’ but… was Sniper ready for that? Heck, was _Scout_ ready for that? He didn’t know so he’d leave it at that for now. So he cuddled closer instead, pulling himself fully up onto Sniper’s lap, his favourite place to sit.

Sniper sighed but let him do so, putting his arm around his back. He liked to pretend to be mildly annoyed when Scout did this, in truth he loved it though. He was wonderful like that.


End file.
